Simplifying the human serum proteome for discriminating patients with bipolar disorder of other psychiatry conditions.

Purpose: An exploratory analysis using proteomic strategies in blood serum of patients with bipolar disorder (BD), and with other psychiatric conditions such as Schizophrenia (SCZ), can provide a better understanding of this disorder, as well as their discrimination based on their proteomic profile.

Methods: The proteomic profile of blood serum samples obtained from patients with BD using lithium or other drugs (N=14), healthy controls, including non-family (HCNF; N=3) and family (HCF; N=9), patients with schizophrenia (SCZ; N=23), and patients using lithium for other psychiatric conditions (OD; N=4) were compared. Four methods for simplifying the serum samples proteome were evaluated for both removing the most abundant proteins and for enriching those of lower-abundance: protein depletion with acetonitrile (ACN), dithiothreitol (DTT), sequential depletion using DTT and ACN, and protein equalization using commercial ProteoMiner® kit (PM).

Twenty years of electroconvulsive therapy in a psychiatric unit at a university general hospital.

Objective: To describe the sociodemographic and clinical profile of patients who underwent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) at a university general hospital.

Method: In this retrospective study, records from all patients undergoing ECT between January 1988 and January 2008 at the psychiatric unit of the general hospital of Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) were reviewed. Telephone contact was made with patients/relatives to collect follow-up data.

Apolipoprotein A-I as a candidate serum marker for the response to lithium treatment in bipolar disorder.

The molecular basis of bipolar disorder (BD) is still unknown as is the mechanism through which lithium, the therapy of choice, exerts its effects in treatment of BD. So far, no biomarkers exist to facilitate diagnosis of BD or treatment evaluation. To investigate whether BD and its treatment with lithium leaves a characteristic signature in the serum proteome, we used SELDI-TOF MS to analyze individual serum samples from BD patients treated with lithium (BD-plus-Li, n=15) or other drugs (BD-minus-Li, n=10) and from healthy controls (n=15).

Metabolic profiling of human blood serum from treated patients with bipolar disorder employing 1H NMR spectroscopy and chemometrics.

Metabolic profiling employing hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy and chemometric analysis of human blood serum samples taken from the control group (n = 25) and patients with bipolar disorder (n = 25) was performed to identify molecular changes related to the disorder and to different drug treatments: lithium (n = 15) versus other medications (n = 10). This strategy showed significant potential for exploring pathophysiological and toxicological features involved in bipolar disorder. The investigated groups (control and patients with bipolar disorder under different treatments) could be distinguished according to their metabolic profiles, and the main differential metabolites found were lipids, lipid-metabolism-related molecules (acetate, choline, and myo-inositol), and some key amino acids (glutamate, glutamine).

Counseling brazilian undergraduate students: 17 years of a campus mental health service.

Objective: The authors reviewed demographic and clinical characteristics of undergraduates at a Brazilian public university (UNICAMP) who visited the campus mental health service (SAPPE) and compared their demographics with those from all undergraduate students enrolled in the university.

Participants: The authors looked at data from all undergraduates who sought counseling or mental health care at SAPPE over a 17-year period (N = 2,203; 1987-2004).

Methods: They obtained this information from clinical charts and a UNICAMP database.

Demographics and complaints of university students who sought help at a campus mental health service between 1987 and 2004.

Context And Objective: Client characterization is an important step in evaluating the services offered by campus counseling and mental health centers and in their further planning and development. The objectives here were to describe reported complaints and demographics among students who sought counseling/mental healthcare at a Brazilian campus mental health service over a 17-year period and to compare these characteristics with those of the general university student body.

Design And Setting: Retrospective study at the Psychological and Psychiatric Service for Students (SAPPE), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp).

Dementia and functional decline in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Unlabelled: Functional decline in Parkinson's disease (PD), characterized by reduced ability to carry out activities of daily living, usually results from typical motor impairment and may be aggravated by concomitant cognitive impairment.

Objective: To compare the functional decline in Parkinson's disease between patients with dementia and cognitively preserved patients.

Methods: From an original sample composed of 50 patients with a clinical diagnosis of idiopathic PD seen in a consecutive series, 33 non-depressed patients were selected comprising 13 with dementia and 20 cognitively preserved individuals.

Inter-rater reliability and factor analysis of the Brazilian version of the Schedule for the Assessment of Insight: Expanded Version (SAI-E).

Objectives: The Schedule for the Assessment of Insight - Expanded Version consists of 11 items that encompass: awareness of having a mental illness, ability to rename psychotic phenomena as abnormal, and compliance with treatment. The objective of the study was to evaluate the inter-rater reliability and to study the factorial structure of the Brazilian version of the instrument.

Method: The Brazilian version of the Schedule for the Assessment of Insight - Expanded Version was used for the assessment of insight of 109 psychotic inpatients, 60 of whom had the interview tape-recorded in order to be scored by an independent evaluator.